26 Industrial

In 1985 I was an ‘Artist in Industry’ in a chocolate factory, Rowntree Mackintosh in Halifax, where Quality Street were made. Very Willy Wonka. The women on the conveyor belts were allowed to eat anything from them. I never saw it happen. The factory floor had a large in-house (and free) dental surgery.

I think the residency may have been a last hurrah of an idea that APG from the 1960s had, and Yorkshire Arts Council were running. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/artist-placement-group

Ted Hughes writes in Remains of Elmet about Halifax… For centuries it was considered a more or less uninhabitable wilderness… then in the early 1800s it became the cradle for the Industrial Revolution… Throughout my lifetime, since 1930, I have watched the mills and their attendant chapels die.

Lots of industrial art there then. LS Lowry of course

then there is a Snicket in Halifax

I think I’ve found where Bill’s photo was taken… https://goo.gl/maps/2PfbszNe3pvzQdpX8

And probably so has someone else

But if it’s cobbles you want… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Mq59ykPnAE

I also have a vivid memory of a gig there by Nico, not in Reims Cathedral, but San Miguel's in Broad Street, supported by a dazzling Angie Bowie singing razzamatazz with a backing tape. True.

The series of works I made for the resultant show in Leeds City Art Gallery was constructed from very industrial but unecological shattered Perspex.